RQG 137 - Lightning Round
Summary Zolf uses his profession in questionable ways. Hamid makes a permanent decision. Synopsis The party is in mid-combat with a goolem, which has engulfed Zolf. Zolf manages to pull himself free from the goo and distances himself to heal himself while the rest of the party keep attacking it. Zolf casts Freedom's Call to make sure nobody else can get engulfed. Cel uses their last two bombs on the goolem. Eventually, Azu lands the killing blow and the goolem explodes into goo that drips down the metal grating and further down the lighthouse. Hamid and Zolf check to see who is hurt, and Zolf then uses Channel Positive Energy twice to heal everyone (16 + 15 hp). Hamid speculates that the top of the lighthouse is harvesting lightning. Looking around, it becomes clear that the machinery at the top of the lighthouse was built to interact with lightning in some way. At the top of the lighthouse is the biggest lightning rod the party has ever seen. Hamid recognizes a familiar Simulacrum-vibe to the technology around them, especially in the layout of machinery and the four crystals at the top of the lighthouse's light bulb, which are all full of electricity. Cel notices that the machinery is not only sending lightning down, but is also broadcasting 'something' out. The machinery on top of the bulb is using some of the power to do some unknown extra task besides just the storing of lightning, although Cel is not sure of what exactly it is doing. They can't tell whether it's still functional or not. Both Hamid and Zolf suggest to break the lightning rod to make sure it stops what it is doing. BREAK Zolf asks what part of the machine should be destroyed, and Cel says the lightning rod. Hamid casts Detect Magic. He can sense that magic is happening, but it is hard to pin down a specific location or a specific school, which seems to suggest that there is such a mix of magic and technology going on it's hard to differentiate anything. They decide to smash some of the crystals. Hamid casts Resist Energy (electricity) on Zolf, and Zolf smashes the first crystal. A bolt of lightning springs from the shattered remains and slams into him (23 damage, but he resists 10). Zolf casts Protection From Energy on himself, making him immune to lightning (69 hp) and he smashes the remaining crystals. Azu casts Lay on Hands on Zolf twice (15 + 14 hp). Zolf opens the door to an outside walkway that leads to a ladder to the the roof of the lighthouse and the lightning rod. The wind immediately blows inside, and Zolf ties a rope to himself before climbing outside and activating his boots of levitation. The wind and the storm makes it very difficult to climb, and Zolf is blown from the ladder and pulled back in by Azu. Zolf casts Bull Strength on himself and tries again, but his second attempt at climbing has the exact same outcome. Zolf decides to try a more careful approach, and ties himself off with rope every couple of feet so he doesn't fall all the way down. All in all, it takes him 20 minutes to reach the top of the lighthouse and it's a very tough, cold and tiring ordeal. Inside the lighthouse, the rest of the party can hear movement downstairs at the base of the lighthouse. Hamid decides to run over to the trapdoor and check out what is going on downstairs. Hamid sees a bunch of kobolds (20) wandering downstairs about to go up, being ordered around by several humans (3) who are heading towards the trapdoor. Hamid briefly hesitates and then casts Fireball at them, aiming for the humans (44 fire damage). He is heavy-hearted, as his goal is to kill the humans but he knows the kobolds will certainly be killed as collateral damage. An enormous explosion goes off downstairs and the kobolds and humans are all killed, leaving a mess of smoking corpses which clog the stairwell. The rest of the group hear the explosion, and Azu asks him what happened. Hamid, unsettled, explains the situation to them, and Azu and Cel seem taken aback. Zolf has reached the top of the lighthouse, and the lightning rod is absolutely massive. He looks for a maintenance panel and pries it open with his glaive. Inside the maintenance panel is a thick electric cable. Zolf turns his glaive on fire and then hacks at the panel. Timing it poorly, he gets hit by a lightning strike (42 damage - all resisted) as his glaive connects. Zolf manages to hack through most of the cables, but not all, so he tries again. He gets hit by another lightning strike (39 damage - 26 damage actually taken). Most of Zolf's non-magical, non-leather clothing is burned off. He lets himself fall down the lighthouse and is pulled back inside by Azu, but it takes about 5 minutes. Zolf staggers back inside, having hit by lightning twice he looks a mess, his hair is on end, his clothing burned. Azu asks him if he's all right, and Zolf tells them he was hit by lightning twice. Azu offers to heal him. END EPISODE Quotes * Alex, introducing the episode: "So, we are in the middle of someone's turn, which I normally don't end an episode on? But it felt appropriate since you just done grievous bodily harm to a friend. Like, that's a good ending for me. .. See, I'm so glad that like -- it's hard to get an episode to a logical conclusion? And hurting each other is the logical conclusion for every episode, so I'm very happy." - # Alex: "Cell, you're up. You just watched the most pathetic display of bows ever." # Bryn: "I hit! It was a solid, central hit!" # Alex: "Was it electric? Did it explode? Was it a siege crossbow? These are the criteria from which I am presuming Cel judges all archery." # Lydia: "Cell doesn't roll their eyes. They're like: "Good job buddy!" # Bryn: "Aw! Hamid actually smiles. Because he knows it wasn't, but he appreciates someone saying so anyway!" - # Alex: "Then, it's the creatureturn...." # Alex, singing: "It wants you back! It wants you back! ... OM NOM!" # Ben: "Is it going to move towards me?" # Alex: "From where it is, no, it is just going to take a swing because you're 10 feet away so you're in range of it. It has a 10 foot range, you have 10 foot range." # Ben: "Oh, it's envelop also has a 10 foot range?" # Alex: "Ah... So. No. It's just going to take a swing at you this time." # Ben: "So it doesn't want me back." # Alex, singing: "It wants you back... in pieces~~!" # Ben: "Right, that..." *''heavy sigh of frustration*'' # Alex: "So, you gotta let me finish my songs! My expositional songs!" - # Bryn: "2 whole damage!" # Alex: "Look, every little helps. Every very, VERY little helps. In fact, you ticked it up to a whole-10 number! Hm? Wouldn't have happened without you." # Bryn: "So what you're saying is I rounded it off." # Alex: "Your attack is a rounding error, yes." - # Hamid: "Good work, everyone okay?" # Zolf: "Yeah, who's hurt?" # Azu: "You are, right?" # Zolf: "Well, yeah, but..." # Azu: "...Well, me too." # Zolf: "Good. Right, well I can heal us both." # Azu: "I can also... Why don't we both- why don't we..." # Alex: "Lay 'em out on the table and let's have a look!" - # Alex, delighted, as he's trying to figure out how much damage Zolf will take after having both received Protection From Energy and Resist Energy: "What a bizarrely complicated scenario that managed to happen!" # Bryn: "I LOVE IT!" # Ben: "I hate it." - # Helen: "Oh, Bryn... our little friends." # Ben: "They're minions." # Helen: "Yeah, but they don't really know what they're doing." # Ben: "If a dog was attacking you, would you fight it off?" # Helen: "Well, yeah, but I wouldn't, like, kill it." # Ben: "What if you had to?" # Alex: "What if the dog kept yelling "Don't hurt me!" while it did it." # Ben: "Well, they're not going to get a chance!" - # Alex: "But I'm going to give you this for free: You also reckon that jabbing a metal glaive in an active lightning rod, like the cable that is powering the power, is going to hurt." # Ben: "Or... Magic's great! I turn my glaive on fire and stuff it in the hole." - # Azu: "Are you all right?" # Zolf: "I just got struck by lightning twice! WOOF! It's gone though." # Cel: "It's great right? The rush!" # Zolf: "Ehh... I mean, yeah, I am pumping, but also, woo! Anyway, right -" Dice rolls and Mechanics * Zolf Fortitude save against the Goolem: 24 * Azu Fortitude saves against the Goolem: 18, natural 1 * Cel Knowledge Alchemy check: 21 * Hamid, Zolf, Cel and Azu Perception check: 25 (Zolf), 23 (Hamid), 21 (Cel), 15 (Azu) * Cel Knowledge Engineering on the machinery in the lighthouse: 15 * Zolf attack roll on the crystal: 18 * Azu, Zolf, Hamid and Cel Reflex save when Zolf opens the door at the top of the lighthouse: 19 (Zolf), 27 (Hamid), 14 (Cel), 24 (Azu) * Zolf Strength check to climb the lighthouse: 8 * Zolf Reflex save to grab onto the ladder: 18 * Zolf Strength check: 14 * Zolf reflex save: 11 * Zolf Strength check (with Bull's strength): 14 * Zolf reflex save: 13 * Cel Knowledge Engineering on how to have Zolf climb the ladder: 13 * Zolf Fortitude save climbing the lighthouse: 26 * Azu, Hamid and Cel perception check: 18 (Hamid), 15 (Azu), 15 (Cel) * Hamid Stealth roll to sneak to the trapdoor: 28 * Zolf Strength check to open the maintenance panel: 22 * Zolf Damage roll on the maintenance panel: 17 damage * Zolf Damage roll on the maintenance panel: 5 damage * Zolf Fortitude saves to climb back down: 29, 19 * Zolf and Azu strength check to haul Zolf back inside: 11 (Zolf), 14 (Azu) Combat Breakdown * Azu uses her second axe attack on the goolem: 15 (miss) * Hamid fires his crossbow at the goolem: 27 (4 damage), Zolf takes 2 damage. Hamid uses his move action to reload his crossbow. * Cel fires three crossbow bolts into the goolem: Natural 1 (miss, but 8 damage to Zolf), 21 (miss), 11 (miss) * Zolf takes 3 acid damage at the start of his turn. He makes his fortitude save, but is grappled. Zolf tries to get out of the grapple: 21 (success), he pulls himself free from the goolem. * The goolem takes two swings at Zolf, hitting twice (16 damage, and 6 acid damage). Zolf has to make a fortitude save: 24 (success), which causes him to resist an effect of some kind * Azu attacks the goolem twice: 18 (miss), 22 (16 damage) * Hamid fires his crossbow at the goolem: ? (miss). He uses his movement to reload. * Cel takes three shots at the goolem: 23 (5 damage), 10 (miss), 10 (miss) * Zolf moves 5 ft backwards and then activates Freedom's Call, and then converts an Inflicts Critical Wounds into a Heal Critical wounds to heal himself: 19 hp * The goolem attempts to engulf Azu, but Azu is immune to being grappled due to Zolf's Freedom's Call, so it fails * Azu attacks the goolem twice with her axe: ? (miss), ? (miss) * Hamid fires his crossbow at the goolem: 24 (2 damage). He uses his movement to reload. * Cel throws their last two bombs: 21 (11 splash damage), 15 (miss) * Zolf takes a 5ft step towards the creature and does a full attack action at the goolem: 15 (miss), ? (miss) * The goolem attacks Azu twice, hitting twice: ? (13 damage + 12 acid), ? (11 damage + 9 acid). Azu makes two Fortitude saves (18, natural 1). * Azu attack the goolem with her axe: ? (10 damage). The goolem explodes into goo. * END INITIATIVE Plot Notes Category:Episode Category:Season 4